1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tag grouping system and tag grouping method. More particularly, it relates to a tag grouping system and tag grouping method for grouping a plurality of ID tags detected by a mobile tag reader.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, methods have been proposed for detecting a plurality of RFID (radio frequency identification) or other ID tags simultaneously by means of a mobile tag reader and grouping the tags into meaningful blocks to offer various services.
For example, a method disclosed in Patent Document 1 involves using a portable electronic device such as a cellular phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) equipped with a tag reader, detecting ID tags attached to articles and the like with the mobile tag reader, grouping the tags to make it possible to recognize the articles which belong to the same user, and thereby registering belongings of the user.
(Patent Document 1)
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-163301 (FIG. 2; Paragraphs (0040) to (0042))
However, with the conventional technique described above, the area in which the tag reader can simultaneously detect ID tags is limited. Thus, the conventional technique cannot group ID tags located in a wide area even though it can group all the ID tags detected simultaneously by the tag reader if they are located in a smaller area as is the case with a user's belongings.
For example, when it is necessary to group all the ID tags distributed in a room, conventional methods, which cannot simultaneously detect all the ID tags distributed in a large area with a tag reader, cannot group the ID tags.
If the user walk around in the room carrying a mobile tag reader, it is possible to detect all the ID tags in the room. In that case, however, it is not possible to determine whether or not the ID tags are located in the same room.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems and has an object to provide a tag grouping system and tag grouping method which can group ID tags distributed in a larger area than the coverage of a tag reader.